Trekking to the foot of the Himalaya Mountains

 Annapurna I

We have just returned from a hike into the Himalaya with some sore knees but having seen one of the most beautiful places we've ever been.  We planned on taking 10 days but ended up finishing in 9, making our last day a long one, but it was worth it.  Now...how to describe the actual hike?  First of all, the scenery was incredible.  We started getting some good views of the famous mountain Fishtail and some of the Annapurna mountains early on in the trek.  It's incredible to see these peaks poking out above the tree-covered smaller mountains.  In addition to the Himalayan mountains, the valleys were also beautiful in their own way.  The trail goes from village to village so we were always walking by rice fields, village people doing their farming, donkeys carrying goods (their "cars"), through gorgeous forests, or waiting for a herd of goats to move out of the way.  It was cool to see a way of life that is so self-sufficient and has no motorized vehicles, although it seems everyone still has a cell phone!

Fishtail just before sunrise

On our third day of hiking we got our first real taste for the Annapurna Mountain Range.  We woke up at 4:30am to hike to view sunrise from Poon Hill.  That was spectacular.  The whole range was laid out before us.  We watched as the mountains started to come out of the darkness and then as the sun slowly lit the ridges.  The mountains seemed tipped with gold.  Although it was freezing cold it was hard for me to tear myself away.  We watched as the whole range was lit up before heading back down for breakfast and a full day of hiking.  Over the next 3 days we continued to slowly climb in elevation and get closer to the mountains.  At some points you felt like you could reach out and touch them.  Views were always best in the mornings, before 11, when the air was crystal clear and before the clouds moved in.  Day 6 was the "big day" of reaching Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) at 13,500 feet.  We left early so we could get there in time to see the mountains and make sure we had a bedroom in the very overcrowded lodges.  The last hour of the hike brought us into Annapurna Sanctuary, an area completely surrounded in a circle by the mountains and where ABC is located.  It was truly overwhelming.  Once at base camp we were literally at the foot of some of the most impressive mountains in the world.  We could stand in one spot, turn all the way around, and see huge, snow-covered peaks in every direction.  We arrived at 9:30 am and had a nice hour or so taking it in from a quiet spot.  The next morning we woke up at 6:00, rolled out of our bedroom in all the clothes we brought, and watched sunrise.  It is a moment and place we'll never forget.

We made it!

Sunrise on Annapurna I as seen from ABC

The trek was cool for a lot of reasons.  We usually woke up early, around 6, and would hike for 5-7 hours each day.  The hiking was all steep uphill or downhill...there was almost no flat ground for the entire trek.  We would stop for a tea break mid-morning at one of the villages and then usually reach our destination by a late lunch time.  That gave us the afternoon to nap, read, play cards, and relax.  Each lodge had a common "dining hall" where everyone gathered for warmth from about 4pm through dinner.  This was a lot of fun because we met a lot of interesting people during this time.  Some people we would see day after day at the lodges so we got to know them better.  It was cool to hear where other people have traveled and their life stories.  We met one family from Australia who were hiking with their 6 and 11 year old sons and traveling for several months together!  The dining hall was also the place to eat, obviously.  We actually had decent to good food the whole time, with lots of variety, something we weren't really expecting.

Victory cheer from the Sanctuary

We're now back in Pokhara, where we had a victory dinner of steaks and hamburgers. And today, we went paragliding, which was extremely fun.  The only bad thing was that I got a really bad ankle sprain on the landing. Tomorrow, we move on to the small Newari (one of Nepal's ethnic groups) village, called Bandipur.

Photo of me taken by Mr. K.